


Fire and ice

by Yheela



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 10:26:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9119593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yheela/pseuds/Yheela
Summary: Waking up in the tunnels beneath Haven after letting the avalanche come thundering down upon it.





	

"Fucking hell." 

There’s a ringing in my ears from the avalanche crashing down on Haven. My body hurts all over. I’m lying on cold and rocky ground, images swirling through my mind. Mages and Templars fighting. Darkspawn talking. Dragons swooping down on us. The world tearing at the seams. It’s all too much. I’d shake my head if I didn’t feel so nauseous. How long was I out for? Did they all make it out alright? What if the dragon found them? No. I must believe they’re safe.

Oh, blessed Andraste. Why didn’t I stay Ostwick? Why didn’t I argue with Mother? A painful chuckle passes my lips. Because Ostwick bored me to tears and Kilian Dorotheus would have been forced upon me until I broke and agreed to marry him, or pledged myself to the Chantry.

I don’t know if it’s the memory of home or the cold, but I start to shiver violently. Maybe getting up would be a good start. Teeth clenched I struggle upright, a dizzy spell has me stumbling into an icy cave wall.

“Soddin’ blighted Coryphefuck!”

A low moan echoes through the cavern. Could someone else have survived this and ended up in the tunnels beneath Haven? Cradling my left arm, I force myself to put one foot in front of the other and move forward. Corypheus did something to me when he tried to remove the Mark from my hand. The pain hasn’t been this bad before. A cave-in has me turning left, across a rickety bridge over a not so deep shaft. Up ahead there’s a resemblance of light. The way out?

A cave. Hissing and moaning, the non-human kind, travels down the tunnel to where I’m standing. Demons.

Anger trumps fatigue. The pain in my hand is excruciating. I need it to stop! Walking the last few steps to the mouth of the cave I raise my left hand as if I were to close a Rift. I scream at the Shades hovering in the middle of the ice cave, they all move towards me. A blast of green shoots out from the Mark, creating some sort of backwards Rift, sucking the Shades into it and then imploding with a loud crack. Biting down on a growl of pain I fall onto my knees.

A gust of wind swirls my hair around my face. Is that the way out? On hand trailing the jagged wall and the other tucked inside my thin coat I make it to the end of the tunnel. Night has fallen, and a snowstorm is painting everything white. With shaking hands I button my coat all the way before I head out into the biting cold wind. The warmth of a flickering fire draws me to the right, but as I get there it’s extinguished by the wind and snow. I take heart by it, if the fire was still burning as I stepped out from the tunnels I can’t have been unconscious for too long. I might catch up to them yet.

Pain as I’ve not known it before.

My teeth won’t stop clattering, I can’t feel my feet and the howling wind is shooting icy pellets all over my body. Oh Maker, make it stop!

It’s darker still, the snowstorm has blown itself out, and above me the stars are shining through tears in the clouds. The snow comes up past my knees. I’m so cold. And tired. So cold and tired. Maybe I should just lay down here in the snow and sleep. Just for a little while. A wolf howls in the distance, making the fuzziness in my mind clear instantly.

“No.” A croaking sound comes from my throat. I lift my head and see mountain cliffs closer than they were before. Is that a fire burning or are my eyes deceiving me? The distant howl sounds closer and it's soon answered by more than one wolf. Trudging forward I set my sights on that which flickers up ahead. The smell of wood smoke wafts down the hill, giving me a surge of strength and a glimmer of hope.

There’s an abandoned campsite right at the mouth of a passage leading further into the mountain, the embers are still glowing.

“Maker, let it be them.” An image of me sleeping by the fire flashes through my frozen mind and I must force my feet to continue past the smoking embers into the dark shadow of the mountain.

_I can’t. I… can’t…_

“Maker’s breath! It’s her!”

My mind is playing tricks on me. I hear the Commander’s voice calling from the darkness. Something cold and wet finds its way in through my collar as I fall face-first into the snow.

 


End file.
